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Chung Wai Ming Recalls His Sixty Years in Radio

Clip2-Joining Radio Rediffusion in 1949 and The Cases of Detective Kwok Lam

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On 22 March 1949, Radio Rediffusion which offered a cable service was founded. For $10 a month, the station sent around a technician to install the sound box at the customer’s home. Someone also came to the house to collect the fees, and while he was there, he would take the opportunity to ask the customers which station they liked and which type of programmes they enjoyed. This is the most immediate and effective form of doing a consumer survey. Rediffusion discovered that the audience was fond of radio dramas, and so produced radio dramas on a large scale, including detective dramas, family dramas, romances, period dramas, folk tales, etc… anything. This meant that our opportunity for performing increased greatly.

Several of the detective dramas are unforgettable to me. One is “The Cases of Detective Wai Lun”, the other is “The Cases of Detective Kwok Lam”. The former is a 1960s Radio Hong Kong production, the latter a Rediffusion production. I was acting in it. The main roles were originally to be played by Kwong Tien-pui and Lam Kwok Kai. The play itself had been adapted from materials that Kwong Tien-pui had collected in Shanghai. The original name was “The Cases of Detective Kwong Lam” because of the surnames of the two. But since the character “Kwong” was awkward to pronounce, it was later changed to “The Cases of Detective Kwok Lam”. However, the results of the initial recording was not very satisfactory and the advertisers were particularly unhappy with it; consequently, the roles were given to me and Li Fu Wing instead, with me playing the detective Kwok Lam, and Mr Li playing the role of his assistant, Ah Leung.

The “Cases of Detective Kwok Lam” was received warmly in Hong Kong. Rediffusion in Singapore and Malaysia even bought the copyright and there, the audience raved about it. The audience in these regions was very serious about their radio dramas. During the half hour of their airing, some shopkeepers preferred to close their shop doors and suspend business temporarily. This way, they would be able to follow the plot without interruption, and also learn Cantonese. The first time my voice was aired in Singapore and Malaysia was due to this programme. This is what the audience there wrote to tell me.





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